Reports and Indices

Digital Economy Report 2024 - UNCTAD

July 18 , 2024 8 hrs 0 min 56 0

The Digital Economy Report 2024 underscores the urgent need for environmentally sustainable and inclusive digitalization strategies.
Information and communications technology (ICT) networks account for an estimated 6% to 12% of global electricity use.
Annual smartphone shipments have more than doubled since 2010, hitting 1.2 billion in 2023.
Internet of things (IoT) devices are projected to surge 2.5 times from 2023 to 39 billion by 2029.
New data from 43 countries, shows e-commerce sales grew nearly 60% from 2016 to 2022, to reach $27 trillion.
Waste from screens and small IT equipment rose 30% between 2010 and 2022, reaching 10.5 million tons.
The ICT sector emitted an estimated 0.69 to 1.6 gigatons of CO2 equivalents in 2020, corresponding to 1.5% to 3.2% of global GHG emissions.
Phones used 10 elements from the periodic table in 1960, 27 in 1990 and 63 in 2021.
Demand for cobalt, graphite and lithium is expected to increase by 500% by 2050
Worldwide, data centres are estimated to have consumed as much energy as France in 2022 – 460 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity.
Bitcoin mining's global energy consumption rose 34 times between 2015 and 2023.
Developing countries generate less than 1 kilogram of digitalization-related waste per person compared to 3.25 kilograms for developed countries.
The global market for electronics recycling is expected to grow from $37 billion in 2022 to an estimated $108 billion by 2030.